Insider Info
JON ROMBACH
WALLOWA COUNTY WRITER
AND RIVER GUIDE
BE INSPIRED
With its spectacular beauty and end-of-the-road isolation, it’s no
wonder Wallowa County attracts artists and creative people of every
kind. Or folks already living here are inspired to become artists,
musicians or writers.
Wallowa County's thriving arts community includes an arts council,
bronze foundries and galleries, musical organizations and events,
a community theater group, a literary nonprofit, a new cultural center
and more.
WALLOWA COUNTY BRONZE
Bronze sculptures cast in Wallowa County foundries – the first one was established in
Joseph in 1984 – have found homes all over the world and established a reputation for
quality bronze in the art world. Contact local foundries to see if a tour can be arranged.
VALLEY OF MUSIC
Music of all types fills the Wallowa Valley year round, and there are many musical
events in the summer months geared for locals and visitors alike. Free Thursday evening
concerts in Enterprise throughout the summer months on the courthouse lawn, a fiddle
camp in Wallowa and a big blues concert in Joseph are a few musical calendar items.
JOSEPHY CENTER FOR ARTS AND CULTURE
The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture on Main Street in Joseph is three years old and
hosts a myriad of art shows, classes and musical performances all year. Be sure to stop
by and see what’s going on.
FISHTRAP, INC.
Fishtrap is a literary nonprofit that caters to writers, teachers, librarians, and anyone who
loves the written word. It hosts programs all year but its biggest activity is the Fishtrap
Summer Gathering of Writers, which celebrates its 28th year at Wallowa Lake in the
summer of 2015.
Native Oregonian Jon Rombach grew
up in Pleasant Hill, just down the road
from famed writer Ken Kesey. Rombach
attended school with second-generation
Pranksters, making it an interesting
experience.
Rombach attended three different
colleges and worked in Hawaii and at
Glacier National Park in Montana, and
taught journalism at a junior college in
Thailand. Friends ordered Rombach to
make a visit to the Wallowas, and he
immediately fell into its grasp.
The country inspires Rombach’s writing.
“There’s a lot of yin and yang around here.
You can be up in the Wallowas holding a
seashell fossil and drop 6,000 feet and pull
cactus spines from your foot by sundown.
It is an awfully big country that’s been
through major historical and geological
changes,” he says.
Rombach is currently working on a book
with photographer David Jensen.
WHERE I TAKE VISITORS:
“I like to combine our beautiful drives and
outstanding local milkshakes. To Boggan’s
on the Rattlesnake, through Troy for
another milkshake, Little Bear Drive-in in
Wallowa with more options in Enterprise
and Joseph. I’ve had people visit and claim
they don’t have time to see Wallowa Lake.
I don’t allow that kind of behavior.”
MY FAVORITE THINGS IN
WALLOWA COUNTY:
“The mountains were the first thing to
grab me. Then I started spending time
on the rivers and they got ahold of me.
One of my favorite things is seeing the
'Entering Wallowa County' sign after I’ve
been gone awhile.”
www.wallowa.com | WALLOWA COUNTY VISITOR GUIDE 2015 | 53